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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23567146">So honey, spread your wings and fly away</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/high_functioning_sociopath/pseuds/high_functioning_sociopath'>high_functioning_sociopath</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Iron Man (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Depressed Tony Stark, Ficlet, Gen, Loss of Limbs, Wingfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:27:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>338</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23567146</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/high_functioning_sociopath/pseuds/high_functioning_sociopath</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony loses an arm, a wing, and himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>So honey, spread your wings and fly away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkGold/gifts">PinkGold</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>inspired by PinkGold's awesome <a href="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/463412169757818891/697625336149573732/image0.jpg">art</a>!! stay awesome bb 😘 &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The pain was excruciating.</p>
<p>He’d heard the words, he’d seen the movies; everyone knows how bad it hurts to lose a limb, losing a wing no easier.</p>
<p>But it was nothing, <em> nothing </em> compared to waking up on those scratchy sheets, to seeing the doctor’s somber face, to hearing— no, <em> knowing </em> that he’ll never be whole again. Never function like he should.</p>
<p>Never fly.</p>
<p>He spends days (weeks? months?) drinking and feeling sorry for himself, because fuck it, it’s his right. He’s allowed after all this. He can barely pour himself a drink, let alone build a circuit board. (And forget the creating he <em> actually </em> used to do.) Fuck moving on. Fuck healing.</p>
<p>Fuck the beast who stole <em> everything </em> from him.</p>
<p>It takes Pepper literally kicking him off his bed, letting him sprawl onto the hard floor with a pained grunt— </p>
<p>(“You have a job, Tony. You have a <em> life</em>.”</p>
<p>“I have <em> nothing</em>!”)</p>
<p>—and leaving him there with a sigh, a disappointed shake of her head, to snap him out of it.</p>
<p>(The literal bucket of ice water Rhodey throws on his head an hour later helps too.)</p>
<p>It’s horrible, trying to build with one arm. He can’t hold things still or out of his way, can’t make anything easier the way he used to. Dum-E wants to help but he’s too clunky and uncoordinated, so Tony sets him to keeping him caffeinated. He stays there for a week and a day—</p>
<p>(Pepper brings him food, because his eyes are full of determination rather than pain, anger, hopelessness, and she’ll give anything to keep it that way.)</p>
<p>—and then it’s <em> done</em>. Still glitchy, still in testing, would get sued in an instant if he gave it to the public. But he’s not the public, and he hugs his friends with two arms. One metal rather than flesh, but there nonetheless.</p>
<p>The science is all there now, and he has two functioning limbs this time.</p>
<p>He builds. He attaches. He tests.</p>
<p>And ninety-eight days after he lost everything: he flies.</p>
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